Stryker Joins The Cast of Mortal Kombat: Rebirth

From starting out as what seemingly seemed like nothing more than a one and done film pitch, Mortal Kombat: Rebirth has quickly blossomed into what could be an amazing project if everything falls into line. With Director Kevin Tancharoen (the dude who directed the original pitch short) at the helm of the nine part MK: Rebirth web series, we should receive the same dark and grounded MK retelling we all fell in love with last year.

One question that has remained a big question is which MK characters would be included in Rebirth. When the project was announced last month we got confirmation of a few characters such as Jax, Sonya Blade, Liu Kang, Scorpion and even Shang Tsung but beyond that Warner Brothers was keeping mum on the subject, no doubt in an attempt to build up hype leading up to the eventual April release of Mortal Kombat: Rebirth. The character count for MK: Rebirth may be far greater than we imagine as WB has confirmed that MK3 alum Kurtis Stryker will be included in the series. Not a major fan favorite, Stryker does make sense to include seeing as he’s one of the more grounded characters in the MK series and can easily be interwoven with Jax and Sonya Blade, who instead of being in the military are both Police Officers in Deacon City.

I’m not a huge fan of Stryker and I’m probably not the only one, but I am excited about his appearance in MK: Rebirth as actor Tahmoh Penikett has been cast to play him. Best known for his role as Helo in Battlestar Galactica, Tahmoh is a really good actor who not only has an immense bad-ass attitude and vibe to him, but can achieve a nuanced performance that I think should add some nice depth to the otherwise action filled experience of Rebirth.

Tahmoh’s appearance in Mortal Kombat: Rebirth isn’t the first time he’s dabbled in a video game project as he also appeared in Need for Speed Carbon as Darius. Even though we haven’t seen a peep of footage from Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, I think this latest casting news shows that the project could be something great if everything pulls together in the end. At this point the only thing we need to solidify MK: Rebirth as the best thing ever is seeing Scorpion in a version of his trademark yellow & black costume and a freaking confirmation of whether Johnny Cage will be in the series.